the Police reunion

the Police reunion

I became a fan of the Police in 1979 when I was 15 years old. Teenage years are the best to be a fan, the intense feelings you experience then never return when you’re older. I was madly in love with Sting and the music. My room showed no wallpaper, every inch was covered in Police posters. I collected every article and bought any bootleg I could get my hands on in a little shop located in a seedy alley. They visited my country 3 times in those years and I attended every show. It was such a great time! The Police definitely made that confusing period of my life much easier.

When they split up in 1984 I was 20 and the obsession had slowly and naturally faded. Off course at the time nobody knew it was a split because it was never reported as such. They just faded into a memory, much like my obsessive teenage feelings. Since the internet (we didn’t have it back then) I found out about the longing so many still had for a Police reunion. When it finally happened last year I immediately felt excitement to see them together again, but the first thing in my mind was: “ I’m not going to a show”. I can’t for the life of me explain why I feel this way. Perhaps it’s because I already experienced it to the max for 5 years back in the day and don’t feel the need to go down memory lane. It will never be the same as it was. MY Police is the band from 1979, young guys with aggression to match it. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve watched a lot of clips on you tube and they sound and look great. Sting is still a beautiful, charismatic man with a voice that has gotten better with time. They may even sound better than they did, but it’s not my Police anymore. I wonder if I’m the only one who feels this way and how the girlfriends I attended shows back then with feel now. Are they screaming their longs out at concerts this time around?

Stewart Copeland said the songs are infused in people’s lives. True, but they’re not infused in my adult life. I basically stopped listening to the Police after 1984 and didn’t progress into a fan of their solo work either. It’s like that part of my life had run its course. I feel blessed for being there at the time and sorry for people being born to late. Even if the Police reunite for 10 years in a row they are different and these people will never experience what it was like at the time. No video clip can show that feeling. There were many other concerts I attended at the time but there was no rush like a Police concert. Almost like a drug.

Speaking only for myself, this reunion shouldn’t have happened. I understand them wanting closure and a fat paycheck to go with it and they haven’t destroyed the legendary status of the band by doing so. But I would have been perfectly happy with my memories. There is however one thing that would give me the chills and that’s a new album. I know people are willing to kill me at this point. It seems this is the Holy Grail for fans and I’m certainly not the voice of “the people” here. This is just me having a selfish moment.

Sting, Stewart and Andy: I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the past. I had a blast even though you apparently slipped into misery at the time. I was blissfully unaware of that. This reunion is not for me and that’s ok. You have made trillions of people happy and that’s a good thing. However, I have a request. Please don’t make a new album! You have the skill and talent to make a great one, I’m sure it will top everything you have done before. But it will alter everything for me. My Police ended around the same time I moved out of my parent’s house and started growing into adulthood. The transition was fluid. The experience had a beginning, middle and end. It needs no extension, its perfect.